Sources said that Mann is likely to join the Aam Aadmi Party.
Seven Congress legislators and three Aam Aadmi Party MLAs who recently switched over to the ruling party also said Navjot Singh Sidhu was a celebrity and was no doubt an asset to the party but condemning and criticising his own party and government in public has only created a "rift in the cadres and weakened it".
The chief minister pointed out that prompt action had been taken by the Punjab Police and the accused had been caught without delay, unlike in the Hathras incident. "That was why Rahul Gandhi had to rush to Hathras, to secure justice for the victim's family, and did not need to visit Hoshiarpur," he said.
The Congress picked Charanjit Singh Channi as the next chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dailt to hold the post in the state, a day after Amarinder Singh resigned following a bitter power tussle in the party.
When electoral alliances are cooked and tested in the blender of political endurance, all in prep for April-May 2024.
Sidhu backed his wife saying 'she would never lie', while the CM said she refused to contest from Amritsar.
I don't want to hide that some questions are still being resolved, Rawat said.
'His success confirms that the infirm 132-year-old party can still get to its feet if it allows regional leaders to come to the fore,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
The top Congress leadership has not accepted Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation and adopting a wait and watch policy.
The former Punjab Congress chief had been upset with the party for serving him a show-cause notice.
"Indian National Congress welcomes S Navjot Singh Sidhu into the Congress family and we thank Congress vice president for his visionary approach in bringing together like-minded people on common platform under the Congress umbrella," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement.
Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has said a probe would be carried out to ascertain whether Aroosa Alam, a Pakistani journalist who has been visiting former chief minister Amarinder Singh for several years, has links with the ISI.
Announcing the decision, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh welcomed them in the party fold, saying Congress will be further strengthened ahead of the Punjab assembly elections with the joining of like-minded people.
Aam Aadmi Party leader and Ludhiana West MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi has died of gunshot injuries, with police saying on Saturday it could be a case of 'accidental fire' from his own licensed pistol.
The widening differences between Punjab Congress leaders -- Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu intensified with their wives joining them in the conflict.
Congress on Friday said it is "seriously considering" Captain Amarinder Singh as its candidate for the Amritsar parliamentary seat from where senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley is contesting his maiden election.
Asserting that he is neither retired nor tired, Singh says the urge to make Punjab and the country a better place keeps him going at this age.
Singh, who also served as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, joined the SAD on Saturday evening in the presence of party president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, raising speculation over his future plans ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
Talking to reporters Khatkar Kalan, he also suggested that Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence will use farmers' unrest over the new farm laws and will try to foment trouble in the border state of Punjab.
In a major fillip to the Congress in poll-bound Punjab, former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Navjot Singh Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur on Monday joined the party along with former Akali MLA Pargat Singh.
Sidhu asserted that he will continue to appear on The Kapil Sharma Show.
"Reports of @sherryontop (Sidhu) seeking time to meet @capt_amarinder are totally false. No time has been sought whatsoever. No change in stance... CM won't meet #NavjotSinghSidhu till he publicly apologises for his personally derogatory social media attacks against him," Thukral tweeted.
Amarinder would hold the portfolios of General Administration, Personnel, Home Affairs and Justice, Vigilance and other departments not assigned to any other minister.
'If the Congress wants to keep the ship afloat, it will have to bury the differences.'
The ruling Congress on Wednesday swept the urban body polls in Punjab, winning six municipal corporations, emerging as the largest party in the seventh and bagging most of the 109 municipal council and nagar panchayats.
Sunil Jakhar was among the front runners for the chief ministerial post after the exit of Amarinder Singh. But the party preferred Charanjit Singh Channi, who became the first chief minister of Punjab from the Scheduled Caste community.
Several newly elected MLAs including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal, Brahm Mohindra, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit Singh, Pargat Singh, Razia Sultana, O P Soni are in the race for becoming ministers, party sources said.
Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday once again trained his guns on former state chief minister Amarinder Singh, calling him a 'fraud,' 'coward' and a 'crybaby.'
Shah asserted that the BJP will once again form the government in Uttar Pradesh with a comfortable majority.
While the Gandhi siblings have had their way with Amarinder Singh's ouster, the future of the party under the temperamental Navjot Sidhu's leadership is uncertain, reports Sai Manish.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded two Congress turncoats and its former Union minister Vijay Sampla for next month's Punjab assembly polls as it released its second list of 27 candidates on Thursday.
Singh and Punjab Governor V P S Badnore led hundreds of people from all walks of life who took out a candle march to pay homage to the martyrs.
A resolution to this effect was passed unanimously in a meeting of the CLP in Chandigarh.
The scion of erstwhile Patiala Royal family refused to comment on the number of ministers who will be part of the new cabinet.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday agreed to set up a 10-member strategic policy group to ensure better coordination between the party and the state government and expedite implementation of various government programmes.
Barring 2004 and 2009 when Navjot Singh Sidhu won the Amritsar seat as a BJP MP and 1998 when Daya Singh Sodhi from BJP was elected as the MP, it has essentially a Congress bastion.
He also said that it was up to Sonia Gandhi whether she will continue as party chief for another term.
Ahead of the Punjab assembly polls, former Army chief Gen Joginder Jaswant Singh on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Chandigarh in the presence of the party leadership, including Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
When asked if he would be the CM candidate, Amarinder said, "I don't know, that is Congress president's decision."
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